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Real-time collaborative classroom application, built to bring the coordination parts of a classroom online rather than to replace teaching.
Users create or join virtual classes with unique codes, which keeps entry frictionless: no invitations, no account provisioning by an administrator, just a code a teacher can read out. Group workspaces let students work solo or in teams on shared tasks, and live chat carries the instant back-and-forth that makes a class feel synchronous rather than like a document everyone happens to have open.
The technical centre of the project is synchronisation. Next.js handles the frontend, and Firebase provides the backend: Authentication for accounts, with Firestore and the Realtime Database driving instant propagation across every connected client. Nothing requires a page refresh, which sounds minor and is the entire difference between a collaborative tool and a shared file.
Splitting across both Firebase databases was deliberate. Firestore's query model suits structured, persistent classroom data, while the Realtime Database is better suited to high-frequency ephemeral state like presence and live typing. Using each for what it is good at costs a little architectural explanation and avoids forcing one model to do a job it is poor at.
I built the MVP with the core feature set, and team members later extended it with richer functionality. Handing a codebase to other developers is its own test, and the structure held up well enough to be built on rather than worked around.
Private engagement, case study available on request.
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